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Over the years, many directors, such as Martin Scorsese, have taken shots at comic book and superhero movies. These auteurs think popcorn flicks are ruining cinema, turning artistic endeavors into soulless cash-grabbing products. Of course, some back these takes, while others take issue with their opinions, adopting a live-and-let-live mentality.
James Cameron is another naysayer, despite putting out the likes of Terminator in the sci-fi field. Now, he’s wading into these waters again with Avatar: The Way of Water. And while it doesn’t lay a perfect template down, it does prove Cameron has a point on balancing the creative sprint against the creative marathon.
Avatar 2 Worldbuilds Pretty Quickly
Admittedly, DC and Marvel need a lot to world build, whether for the Justice League or The Avengers. It’s why these tentpole movies require trilogies, spinoffs on TV, post-credit stingers and forced cameos. Sure, some moments, like Thanos’ teases, feel natural, but in most cases, the studios are turning a snowball into an avalanche, which they hope will create box office gold down the line.
In the two Avatar movies, on the other hand, Cameron doesn’t need a mammoth of tie-ins to create a cohesive universe. The first film focuses on Jake and Neytiri stopping Colonel Quaritch and Co. from finding unobtanium, while the second involves a reborn Quaritch trying to take out Jake. However, it moves from the jungles with the Omatikaya clan to the seas with the Metkayina. And the thing is, it’s not just a visual spectacle — Jake’s family trains and adapts to this new way of life and forges a bond with this offshoot of the Na’vi species.
It also helps that these movies are lengthy, feeling like a compressed series, but again, it helps roll the story along rather than setting up and dragging out a narrative or alliance for years, as seen with Marvel and DC’s heroes on the big screen. It’s a profitable formula for those studios, and many expected Cameron to continue it as he has more films planned. But he doesn’t bother to delay the way the superhero setup does. Instead, he quickly establishes new heroes and villains, foreshadowing another battle with humanity in a meticulous, detailed outing that even Black Panther: Wakanda Forever couldn’t produce in its runtime.
Avatar 2 Never Sacrifices Character Development
One would assume Cameron moving so quickly with his plot would kill off character development, but that isn’t the case. Jake’s son Lo’ak is set up as the next hero quickly, rather than waiting for the baton as Sam Wilson did with Steve Rogers. Reya of the sea tribe basically becomes the new Neytiri, and Jake also loses his eldest, which shocks fans who don’t expect loss so early on for the heroes. But these aren’t done for shock value — The Way of Water uses all these tools to pad the plot, motivate the characters to become better and quickly install a new generation on an alien planet with so many sub-realms and pockets.
It also rapidly deals with Quaritch’s conflict after meeting his son, Spider, which teases redemption already rather than something Cameron wants to prolong. And amid all these high stakes, unpredictable battles, Cameron creates the ideal foundation to eke out a slow burn for all these big players in his story, treating everyone as a key player rather than supporting pillars. That’s because there’s no lead protagonist and lead villain — everyone’s a nuanced character, which means the story can pivot to anyone at a moment’s notice.
In that sense, Cameron ultimately has a superhero universe in his palms. But by spreading the narrative around, he’s able to speed the franchise up while still keeping depth embedded that’ll make fans come back for more regarding Pandora’s precarious future. Were Cameron working for a comic book studio, it might have taken shorter movies, a trilogy and a TV show to connect all these dots. But Cameron proves, like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, risks can be taken in long-form theatrical storytelling rather than trying to milk something for all that it’s worth as many superhero properties do.
To see how James Cameron’s superhero comments hold up, Avatar: The Way of Water is now playing in theaters.
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